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Friday, September 5, 2014

The Photograph, by Kristen Otte

Synopsis: On a quest for truth, one girl will find more than she bargained for...

Sixteen-year-old Rachel Brandt is excited about her six-month anniversary with her boyfriend, Brent, getting her driver’s license, and competing for a district championship in her first season on the varsity basketball team.

But when Rachel stumbles across a photograph of her parents, she can’t shake the feeling that she is meant to find her mother, whose identity is a secret her grandparents have closely guarded. All Rachel knows is that her mother disappeared around the time her father was killed in action in the Gulf War a few months after she was born.

Her discovery of the photograph sends Rachel on a search for her mother against her grandparents’ wishes and propels her life into a tailspin. She never imagines her search will reveal a series of lies that jeopardizes every important relationship in her life and ultimately lead Rachel to question her identity.Thoughts: **I received a copy of this book from Story Cartel in return for an honest review.**

My biggest problem with this book was all of the long,drawn out descriptions of Rachel's high school basketball games. I'm not a real fan of the game, and I found myself skipping over a lot of those pages by the time I got to the middle of the book.

The story of Rachel's journey to connect with her mother, however, was well worth reading. There were twists and turns all through it that left me stunned and surprised. The relationships with her friends are complex, yet fairly realistic.